The Regulatory Standards Bill is an attack on all of us

Otago Daily Times

12-06-2025

It is that time again. We have another big parliamentary Bill to submit on, the Regulatory Standards Bill.
It is a complicated beast. I know this because I submitted on the discussion document back in December. I was one of the 20,108 not-bot submitters who argued against its complex and contradictory proposals.
You might be one of the 76 people who supported the proposals. Good on you for having your say. You and I both get to do it again.
I do not know anyone other than Act New Zealand who is providing advice if you are one of the 76 but there is a lot of support if you want to join the 20,000.
A major concern is the explicit exclusion of Te Tiriti o Waitangi from the Bill's narrow law-making principles.
The Bill excludes Māori perspectives in the law-making process, erodes Māori rights to self-determination and threatens te reo Māori. It perpetuates systemic racism and colonial structures of power.
Lawyer Tania Waikato argues the Bill will lead to even greater legal confusion and uncertainty, and undoubtedly more litigation because it discards decades of law on the application of te Tiriti in New Zealand policy and legislation.
Even the Ministry of Justice has said the Bill fails to reflect the constitutional importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
The government wants to use the Bill to help it avoid having te Tiriti conversations, but it will only encourage and amplify them.
There are other reasons too.
The Bill will constrain the regulation and law-making of future governments. All laws and regulations will have to meet a set of principles that idolise individual freedoms and private property rights over everything else.
That means, for example, over public services like a good, fit-for-purpose, future-proofed hospital for the South.
You do not have to be a hardcore socialist to think public hospitals are a good idea. Or that it is good for governments, even ones we did not vote for, to be able to legislate for the public good over private interests.
Academic Jane Kelsey describes this as "metaregulation", where the Bill will regulate the way governments can regulate. Because of this, the Bill has the potential to constrain parliamentary sovereignty, in practice if not in law.
What about our environment? The environment has taken some big hits under this government and the Bill will make more of them more likely.
Greenpeace is saying it will be harder for the government to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
The Bill might require the government to compensate corporations for the impact of protective laws that affect their property. You do not get compensated when the law impacts your property: why should corporations?
The Bill encourages deregulation which will compromise the health of the environment. It will encourage exploitation of natural areas and accelerate the loss of endangered species.
It is very contradictory. On one hand the government is encouraging more tourists into New Zealand and on the other promoting legislation that puts our most valuable tourism asset, our natural environment, at even greater risk.
Some are also arguing the Bill will disproportionately benefit wealthy people, widening the gap between them and everybody else.
The Bill will prioritise individual's property rights over workers' rights to secure and safe employment or the rights of vulnerable communities. These are collective services, like social services and infrastructure.
Collective services help to keep us working, support the elderly through superannuation, and provide the social safety net. As eroded as these services might be right now, it can still get much worse, for everyone.
The Bill proposes having an unelected regulatory standards board appointed by the minister to oversee the regime.
This is not a body representing the public. This is an elite group hand-picked by the minister to help put pressure on the government to follow the Bill's prescription. The board will be unelected lobbyists for the Bill's ideology and will not be accountable to voters.
The submissions on the Bill close on June 23, so you have 10 more days.
There is a good portal on the parliamentary website to make your submission through, so it is easy to do. You do not have to say much and you do not have to know all about the Bill's trickier details.
ODT columnist Chris Trotter is right that no Parliament can bind a future one. A future government could, of course, repeal the Bill if it becomes law — but that is not a reason not to fight it.
Putting your faith in the good judgement of a future government is, well, not good judgement. We have to keep up our side of our democracy and have our say, even more so as democracy comes under intense attack.
Because that is what this Bill represents. It is not just an attack on Māori and te Tiriti. Or just on conservationists. Or just on the social safety net.
It is an attack on everyone.
■Metiria Stanton Turei is a senior law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.